McHale liked film's tough scenes

Joel McHale has revealed how he got injured on the set of Deliver Us From Evil, but loved every minute of it.

The Community star was left bruised and battered as he shot his scenes as a tough policeman in Scott Derrickson's new horror film, where he stars alongside Eric Bana as his partner Ralph Scarcio.

"In the movie, I tumble down a flight of stairs and smashed my arm into a concrete wall so hard that it busted. I had huge gashes down my arms," he said.

"I had the time of my life, a ball. I loved it. I got to fight with knives and do crazy stuff I never get to do. I've gotten to do a few of them with Community but never at night in the Bronx, which was a whole different, wonderful, experience. I love doing stunts and hurting myself - the director wrote the role for me, he thinks I'm halfway psychotic."

Joel also enjoyed his knife-fighting scenes in the movie.

" I have a personal knife collection at home so that played right into my interests," he said. "I have some samurai swords, some short swords, bullwhips, police asps, billy clubs and brass knuckles. I probably have 50 or 60 of them."

The 42-year-old, who has two children, underwent training to handle the knives.

"It was three-and-a-half weeks of daily training and me standing in my apartment in New York, quietly doing a pantomime of the fight. My kids would come in and say, 'What are you doing, weirdo?'," he said.

"My main concern was making sure the fight looked real. Knife fighting training is going to be the new aerobic workout... It'll make Taibo look like child's play."